Damn, that doesn’t sound very long, does it? Luckily I’ve made remarkable progress on the nursery over the past two weeks. To be specific: It is REMARKABLE how LITTLE progress I have made, given the time allotted.

Although I was off to a pretty good start when I came home one day to discover that Chris had pulled up the carpet.

And he was all like, “Ok boss, what’s the next step?” And I was all like, “This.”

Get ready for a post full of the most perfectly Pinterest-y pictures I could manage! Ladies and Gentlemen…I present to you…the greatest rock and roll-inspired music room in the history of cheap DIY makeovers (if only because the competition is pretty minimal)…THE BOOM BOOM ROOM!!!

Have you ever seen a DIY tutorial and thought, “That’s so cool! And it sounds so easy! I bet I could do that!”

I fell into that trap this week.

It’s mostly Jenny‘s fault. She was all like, “I wrapped a table in leather and studded it with brass nails!” And I was all like, “That’s so cool! And it sounds so easy! I bet I could do that! All I need now is a piece of furniture to wrap in leather and stud with brass nails!”

So when I looked at the pictures from my last post and felt like the piano was punching me in the eyeballs, I knew I had found a piece of furniture worthy of leather and studs.

Imagine this, if you will: Chris is outside, mowing the lawn, wearing earbuds, minding his own business, just doin’ chores and listenin’ to tunes. Suddenly, I come running out of the house and scare the crap out of him because he’s totally not expecting to see me outside of the house in my pajamas at 2 in the afternoon.

“Hey, Craigslist Master! I need you to find something for me.”

Chris: (removes his earbuds and shuts down the lawn mower in a patient and not-at-all annoyed manner, as if to say, “Go on.”)

Me: “I need you to find me a bunch of cheap microphones.”

Chris: “Okay………..I’m kind of busy…”

Me: “I don’t need them right now. I’m just telling you now, before I forget. There’s plenty of time. I just know it takes time to find good deals on stuff. So, you know…keep your eyes open.”

Chris: “Okay…………Like, how many is ‘a bunch’ Like, 5 or 6?”

Me: “I don’t know, as many as you can find? Like, 20? Maybe more?”

Chris: (gives me a look that I will interpret here as, “20 microphones? You think it’s that easy to find 20 microphones just lying around?”)

Me: “If it makes it easier, they don’t have to all look the same. Because I’m going to spray paint them all. Gold. Also, they don’t actually have to be working microphones. They just have to look like microphones. Like microphone skeletons, that’s all I really need.”

Chris: (I have to give him credit, he held off asking this for waaaay longer than I thought he would) “WHY?”

Today, my friends, marks both a milestone and a deadline. On November 14, 2012 I started demolition on the kitchen project (you can read about it here); that makes today the 11-month anniversary. It also leaves me one more month to get to my arbitrary deadline of getting the kitchen D.O.N.E. in one year.

As of today, all we have left on the list is 1) grout the backsplash, 2) make and install the millwork, 3) strip and repaint the doors, and 4) paint the windows. Do-able, if I work my tail off.

BWAH HAHA HA haha ha ha hahahahahaaaaaaaa…

Yeah, right.

But today, I want to talk about the cabinets. First we enlarged. Then we painted. Then we crowned. Last time I mentioned them, we had jazzed up the insides a little bit. And now, finally, it’s time for the fifth (and final!) installment of the Pimp My Cabinets series. That means that the next time I show you these cabinets, it will be the big cabinet reveal, and you know what that means…before-and-afters! YAY!Continue Reading

Yesterday on Facebook I shared a link to a blog post from Kristen F. Davis Designs, where she talked about painting a wooden knife block. I really liked the idea, and now I’m toying with the idea of painting our very similar knife block a bright yellow color. Here’s what it currently looks like:

And here’s the proposed color palette for the kitchen:

I think a bright yellow knife block would add the perfect pop of color to the black counters, white cabinets, and sagey-green tiles. Can you picture that happy splash of yellow? I can!

But, as you may have already guessed, Chris can’t. He has politely requested that I not paint the knife block. Actually, I believe his exact words were, “Wood looks nicer than cheap-ass painted sh*t.”Continue Reading

On Saturday, I took advantage of the relatively nice weather outside and tried a little spray paint experiment. See, back in September, before you all met me, I removed a rarely-used cabinet from a wall in the kitchen, so I could try painting it and find out if I could actually salvage the cheap cabinets for our remodel. The cabinet turned out pretty awesome, but the hinges left a little to be desired. They were covered in the same orangey stain that was on the cabinets. And I was curious to see if I could make them match the new cabinet pulls I bought. Continue Reading